This disclosure relates generally to the field of management of information technology (IT) services. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, it relates to a mechanism for displaying portions of a graphical representation of an IT infrastructure modeled by an ITIL®-based (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) Configuration Management Database (CMDB). (ITIL is a registered trademark of The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury acting through The Office of Government Commerce and Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, United Kingdom.) ITIL-based CMDBs are emerging as a prominent technology for enterprise management software.
CMDBs typically provide a user interface (UI) for graphically displaying IT configuration data in the CMDB. One of the key ways that such UIs interact with the user is to show a graph of IT infrastructure items (computers, software, applications, computer components, etc.) that are connected via various relationships, and allow the user to pick one of the items to expand the graph—that is, to find items connected to it and add them to the graph.
Current tools for retrieving data from a CMDB need more ways to retrieve (and render) the relevant parts of the IT infrastructure stored as Configuration Items (CIs).
Some current products for graphically exploring IT configuration and infrastructure data have knowledge built into the product about the way different types of items can be related together, and which types are likely to be related to which other types. The user does not usually want to see all items related to a particular CI, and all items related to those CIs, etc. Most of the time there are only certain items the user or application wants to retrieve at that moment. In the graphical view, as the user is viewing a graph of IT infrastructure and selects a node to expand (that is, show related items), the user can choose one of several choices of what category of related items to show, which include not only certain types of related items, but also paths traversing through multiple items related in a chain, in a standard configuration. For example, when expanding a computer system, the user can choose to show either “all components” or “network connectivity.” Each choice shows items related to the computer system, but each shows different items. The choices available for each type of item are different. For example, a computer system item has different types of items related to it than an application item representing a software application deployed in the IT environment.
With existing products, the knowledge in the system of what types of items can be related together and what choices to make available of the different paths to expand a visual graph around an item are inherent in the product, and cannot be changed easily or in a comprehensive way. In addition, adding entirely new paths, or creating paths for any type of items, including any new item type created by users as a customization, is difficult or impossible.